Last week's round, flying wedge, etc.

[anthony]

I shot 13 strokes over my handicap and recorded my worst round of the year last week. Partially, in my defense, the course was worse than I've ever seen it. Brown, hard, and not easy to play from. Our group has agreed that improving your lie is okay since the course is in such bad shape. To their credit, the greens and most of the tee boxes were in good shape. Still, 13 strokes over was no excuse. After a double bogey on the first hole when I was under 50 yds (after a blast off the tee) from the pin on my second shot should have let me know something was up.

I reverse shanked (where it goes left) my tee shot on the second hole (which I have the yips on because this is my 3rd shank in a row on the hole), put my second shot in the trees and recorded a 7, then another 7, then a 5 on a par 3, then another 7 and so on. It was a horrible horrible front 9. On the first par 5, my second shot left me 50 yds to the pin and I doubled it somehow. I missed tons of putts. My tee shots weren't too bad though believe it or not (other than the one I put in the trees). The back wasn't as bad, but still 2 strokes over my handicap.

Later in the day I went to the range to work on my swing, but somehow managed to make it worse. As some of you know, when things get going in the wrong direction, you start going faster. Well, I left the range thinking I forgot how to play the game and quite discouraged. Mainly, because I didn't know what was causing me to hit it so badly.

I didn't hit a ball until today. I did make a bunch of practice swings where I concentrated on making smooth swings that felt good. Today, at first, I was hitting balls well WELL short of where they should be. A good 2 clubs short. So, before I went crazy I went back to the basics. Made sure my grip was right and felt good, line up to the target, made a smooth backswing and let it happen. It helped somewhat, but something still felt weird and more shots were short of normal than they should. Mainly, it felt like all my power was gone and the contact wasn't there. I felt like I was making a good swing, but something was wrong and I couldn't figure it out.

So, I grabbed a couple balls and chipped and pitched around the range (only one other person was there). I was hitting pretty good pitches. Actually, they were really good. Very fluid. One thing I was doing, that I've never done before, was pushing through with my right hand as opposed to trying to keep my left hand straight. Then, I went back to the stall and hit some drives. Other than one or two bananas, they were all good. Super smooth swing that wasn't rushed.

Okay, back to the irons. I got out my 7 iron and hit a few. Then, I remembered how well my pitches were by focusing on my right hand. Bingo! My swing was back. It kinda feels like I'm casting the club, but I was hitting the ball perfect. Perfect ball flight, long, everything I want. I then took a step back to analyze what was going on and noticed my right wrist was bent coming into the ball and I think the shaft was leaning forward. Obviously, I would need to record it to know that. I tried to practice the flying wedge before, but was doing it wrong apparently.

Anyways, I'm going to hit up the range again tomorrow before I play Saturday to work on it some more. I love this game.